Harmful use of alcohol : a shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in need of workable solutions

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cerreiraborges_harmful_2017.pdf(301.54 KB)
Date
2017
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
Alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable burden of disease in Africa are expected to rise in the near future, yet. increasing alcohol-related harm receives little attention from policymakers and from the population in general. Even where new legislation is proposed it is rarely enacted into law. Being at the center of social and cultural activities in many countries, alcohol’s negative role in society and contribution to countries’ burden of disease are rarely questioned. After the momentum created by the adoption in 2010 of the WHO Global Strategy and the WHO Regional Strategy (for Africa) to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, and the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, in 2013, little seems to have been done to address the increasing use of alcohol, its associated burden and the new challenges that derive from the growing influence of the alcohol industry in Africa. In this review, we argue that to have a positive impact on the health of African populations, action addressing specific features of alcohol policy in the continent is needed, namely focusing on particularities linked to alcohol availability, like unrecorded and illicit production, outlet licensing, the expansion of formal production, marketing initiatives and taxation policies.
Description
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Open Access journal
http://www.mdpi.com
Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
A Boyce 2019-02
Keywords
Alcoholism -- Africa, Sub-Saharan, Drinking of alcoholic beverages -- Africa, Sub-Saharan
Citation
Ferreira-Borges, C., Parry, C. D. H. & Babor, T. F. 2017. Harmful use of alcohol : a shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in need of workable solutions. nternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(4):346, doi:10.3390/ijerph14040346
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/105407
Collections
Research Articles (Psychiatry)